Kukla's Korner Hockey

You know the Department of Motor Vehicles drill. You took a half day off work to renew your driver's license during business hours. Inside the DMV office, dozens of fellow would-be motorists with glazed expressions sprawl in rows of hard plastic chairs, their bored and cranky children squalling the misery felt by all. And there's no telling how long you will wait.

Unless you are Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, or a "celebrity" of equal fame and disruption potential, that is.

In that case, as Mr. Crosby demonstrated to amazed patrons of the Duncan Manor DMV office in McCandless Friday morning, you get to skip to the front of the line, taking care of business in minutes while mere mortals -- including fans -- wait as they must.

Some of those fans said Friday they don't mind their hero enjoying the state's policy of preferential treatment for celebrities, which is meant to keep disruption to a minimum. But others said the double standard sends the wrong message that a famous person is more important than the average human.

Comments

There are systems in plenty of places right now (including podunk Kansas) which allows people to virtually wait in line anonymously. They’re given text alerts when they’re coming up.

If PennDOT has this system, then Crosby could wait in line like everybody else, but the thought of being in an hours-long wait at the DMV and then being bothered by the whole place filling up with legions of dummy fans because somebody tweeted his location isn’t something that I think would make things personally better for me.

I’d rather let a celebrity cut me and have my wait time extended by five minutes than make him wait behind me and have the whole place turn into a zoo. This applies whether it’s Crosby or Datsyuk going to get a renewal.

You know the Department of Motor Vehicles drill. You took a half day off work to renew your driver’s license during business hours. Inside the DMV office, dozens of fellow would-be motorists with glazed expressions sprawl in rows of hard plastic chairs, their bored and cranky children squalling the misery felt by all. And there’s no telling how long you will wait.

I don’t know if Amy McConnell Schaarsmith is from another state or doesn’t have a driver’s license or what, but the process of renewing a driver’s license does not take half a day in Allegheny County.

I did this myself at the downtown office not long ago (which is most likely busier than one in friggin Cranberry, of all places), during business hours, and I was out in and out in 15 minutes. Had much the same experience every other time I renewed my license at other offices. Renewing an existing license is a very streamlined process at PennDOT in Allegheny county.